Will This New Discovery In Roswell, N.M. Prove That The 1947 UFO Crash Actually Occurred?

Did a UFO really crash near Roswell, N.M., in 1947? What was that
mysterious triangle of lights that hundreds of people spotted
over Phoenix, Ariz., last fall? Are alleged alien abductees
telling the truth? For a new series on the National Geographic Channel called
"Chasing UFOs," a team of investigators visited UFO hotspots
around the world and interviewed witnesses in an attempt to
address some of history's most famous purported evidence that
aliens have visited Earth.

We caught up with Ben McGee, a geoscientist and the lead field
researcher on the UFO-chasing team, as well as its only skeptic,
to get a taste of what he and his team discovered.

"I tried to help illustrate applying critical analysis to the
range of alleged evidence," McGee told Life's Little
Mysteries."The difference between UFO believers and
astronomers is on the one hand you have people who find the data
to support their hypothesis, and on the other you have the guys
who attack their own hypothesis — who know there's a huge range
of possible other explanations."

Military action

At Roswell, McGee and his team conducted a "recon-style survey"
of the area around the alleged UFO crash site, testing for
radiation and geomagnetic activity. They got lucky.

"We were doing some perimeter sweeps with metal detectors and
got a hit," he said — it was a button from an Air Force
member's coat.

"That jived with some of the alleged 'witness testimony' that
said there was Air Force personnel sweeping the area after the
crash to clean up debris," McGee said. But it also jives with
what has been the military's story all along: that they were
actually recovering debris from a crashed high-altitude
surveillance balloon at the site rather than a flying saucer
and its occupants. "Just because the military was there doesn't
mean an alien was there," he said. [A
Look Back at the Origin of the Flying Saucer Myth]

Triangle over Phoenix

The UFO chasers made another stop in the Southwest, in Phoenix,
and spoke to people who saw a bizarre triangle of green lights
moving slowly across the evening sky last September. The lights
were definitely real — they were seen by many and recorded on
video — but were they a UFO?

McGee, who does consulting work in the commercial space
industry, has an alternative theory. He said a company called
JP Aerospace is experimenting with balloon-based exploration,
and is using enormous, silent V-shape craft that consist of two
giant airships attached to a transfer station. Variations of
the clever design are probably being tested by others, too, he
said. "I would be shocked if the government wasn't using
something similar, and that's a possible explanation for the
Phoenix sighting." [7
Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs]

Questionable accounts

The UFO chasers also interviewed many credible witnesses who
believe Earth is being visited by aliens, including the
moon-walking Apollo 14 astronaut Ed Mitchell. They also spoke
to three women who claimed to have seen an injured alien
creature near an alleged UFO crash site in Varginha, Brazil in
1996, and to a self-described alien abduction survivor in
Colorado. One of McGee's fellow investigators on the show,
James Fox, a ufologist and filmmaker, became convinced that the
witnesses were telling the truth. McGee did not.

"Chasing UFOs" documents these and other exploits by McGee, Fox
and fellow investigator Erin Ryder. The weekly series premieres
on the National Geographic Channel Friday (June 29) at 9 p.m.
ET/PT, with a second episode the first week at 10 p.m.

"People who are curious about UFOs are asking the right sorts
of questions. They are curious about the possibility of life in
the universe. This project has been an opportunity to engage
with them," McGee said, "and to let people know there's no such
thing as a bad question."

At Roswell, McGee and his team conducted a "recon-style survey"
of the area around the alleged UFO crash site, testing for
radiation and geomagnetic activity. They got lucky.

"We were doing some perimeter sweeps with metal detectors and
got a hit," he said — it was a button from an Air Force
member's coat.

"That jived with some of the alleged 'witness testimony' that
said there was Air Force personnel sweeping the area after the
crash to clean up debris," McGee said. But it also jives with
what has been the military's story all along: that they were
actually recovering debris from a crashed high-altitude
surveillance balloon at the site rather than a flying saucer
and its occupants. "Just because the military was there doesn't
mean an alien was there," he said. [A
Look Back at the Origin of the Flying Saucer Myth]

Triangle over Phoenix

The UFO chasers made another stop in the Southwest, in Phoenix,
and spoke to people who saw a bizarre triangle of green lights
moving slowly across the evening sky last September. The lights
were definitely real — they were seen by many and recorded on
video — but were they a UFO?

The UFO chasers also interviewed many credible witnesses who
believe Earth is being visited by aliens, including the
moon-walking Apollo 14 astronaut Ed Mitchell. They also spoke
to three women who claimed to have seen an injured alien
creature near an alleged UFO crash site in Varginha, Brazil in
1996, and to a self-described alien abduction survivor in
Colorado. One of McGee's fellow investigators on the show,
James Fox, a ufologist and filmmaker, became convinced that the
witnesses were telling the truth. McGee did not.

"Chasing UFOs" documents these and other exploits by McGee, Fox
and fellow investigator Erin Ryder. The weekly series premieres
on the National Geographic Channel Friday (June 29) at 9 p.m.
ET/PT, with a second episode the first week at 10 p.m.

"People who are curious about UFOs are asking the right sorts
of questions. They are curious about the possibility of life in
the universe. This project has been an opportunity to engage
with them," McGee said, "and to let people know there's no such
thing as a bad question."